Støre fears unemployment at European levels

Labour leader Jonas Gahr Støre May vocationalLabor leader Jonas Gahr Støre Photo: regjeringen.no

Labour leader Jonas Gahr Støre fears Norwegian unemployment will reach European levels and warns that we are about to end up with a lost generation.

Støre believes it is too easy to say that unemployment is growing due to the crisis in the oil industry.
– Unemployment is highest among those under 26 years of age. 60 percent of those only have elementary school as their highest education. Those are fighting to get into a labor market that not only has fewer jobs in general, but especially few for unskilled workers, said the Minister to the newspaper Klassekampen.
He estimates that between 15,000 and 20,000 of a cohort of 60,000 students are not even going to finish High school, if the current trend does not change.
– This is the beginning of a lost generation. I fear that we are on track to reaching unemployment levels similar to other countries in Europe, says Labor leader.
It would mean an unemployment rate of 10 percent as opposed to the 4.6 percent of people that are, according to Statistics Norway, currently looking for work in this country.
The Minister promises more jobs under him as prime minister, even at times of readjustment.
– Work for everyone does not prevent mobility. 500,000 of us are changing our employment every year, and that is a considerable change. Higher unemployment will make realignment more difficult. Norway has previously had virtually full employment with consideable movement and restucturing,  said the Labour leader.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today

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